Towards zero waste

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Wales’ overarching waste strategy document.

Towards Zero Waste’ (TZW) is the overarching waste strategy document for Wales. It was published in 2010. TZW sets out at a high level strategy for how we will manage waste in Wales to produce benefits not only for the environment, but also for our economy and social wellbeing. Delivery actions have been developed in a series of sector plans, the waste prevention programme and the Technical Advisory Note 21.

The strategy outlines the actions we must all take if we are to reach our ambition of becoming a high recycling nation by 2025 and a zero waste nation by 2050.

2015 progress report

This document sets out progress we have made in waste management since the publication Towards Zero Waste. Particular achievements outlined in the report include:

Wales leads the UK in recycling municipal waste by a significant margin, achieving 54.3% in 2013/14. It is also in fourth place in relation to the performance of EU member states.

We have reduced waste sent to landfill at permitted sites by 37% between 2010 and 2013.

Since 2009-10 we have made progress in reducing household waste arisings by an average of 1.8% per year, and the recycling rate of local authority collected waste has improved by 13.8%.

We met the EU target 2020 for biodegradable waste collected by local authorities and others sent to landfill eight years early.

We have also reduced the greenhouse gas emissions from waste by 4.7% per year since 2007, exceeding the target reduction of 3% per year set in our Climate Change Strategy.